Take That Shot

I’ve been attempting to paint seven paintings a week at Studio Lally: fat chance.  Still, I figure as long as I’m headed in that direction eventually it will happen.  In the meantime though, a lot of paintings are quickly piling up.  What to do with them all?  It seems like a good idea to keep a record of them (that pesky left brain asserting itself again).  The better ones that might have more potential can go to the professional photographer.  The smaller, more numerable ones can be handled more easily in-house.  It’s a lot cheaper this way also. 

Voila!!   Le Box

Right now I use a six mega pixel point-and-shoot Cannon Power Shot camera.  I fabricated this light tent from a cardboard box: cut the sides and top out and draped it with a linen sheet.  It works all right except that I find it somewhat awkward to use.  Later I’ll get a professional tent but this one is good for now.

When the sun is shining, or even on overcast days with sufficient light, I prefer to just go outside to take the shot.  One tripod for the painting and one for the camera works well.  Just try to stay out of direct sunlight and watch out for those nasty reflections from other objects. 

Highly technical stuff!

 As long as the camera is perpendicular to the painting the quality is good.  Another thing I do is to set the two second delay to eliminate camera shake.  Next, I take about three consecutive shots at different exposure settings and later pick the one which looks the best.  Finally, the picture gets cropped from the surrounding background.  Piece of cake!